What’s In YOUR Purse?

It’s been such a great day! The April 2011 LDS General Conference is in full swing, with enough inspirational music and messages to uplift and motivate the soul for months to come. I can hardly wait for tomorrow! But, it’s nice to have a night to reflect on everything we have heard already.

President Thomas S. Monson announced three new temples, which are planned for Fort Collins, Colo.; Meridian, Idaho; and Winnipeg, Canada. The Church is also commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Welfare Program. There are MANY great quotes and powerful ideas scribbled in my notebook that I’m anxious to share. . . but, I simply can’t resist spotlighting apostle Elder Quentin L. Cook’s talk about “INCREDIBLE WOMEN”, specifically, his Parable of a Purse – which I thought was irresistible blog material. 🙂

In short, a woman’s purse was left at an LDS event. Desiring to identify the owner, a few women carefully took one item out at a time. Each item told them more and more interesting things about the woman! For example, they discovered, among many things, that she was a young LDS woman who had fresh breath, soft hands, good hygiene, and a love for the Lord. The story reminded me of a popular credit card advertisement with the tag-line “What’s In YOUR Wallet?” – which made me chuckle. In High School I worked as a bus-girl at a local restaurant and I often found abandoned purses and wallets as I cleaned. If anything looked particularly “feminine”, my manager would always ask me to open it, “Because”, he explained “you just never know what you’re gonna find in a woman’s purse!” True enough – I saw some pretty strange things. In fact, sometimes it was hard to say who was more unfortunate; the woman who had lost her purse, or the person who had found it and had to look inside! Elder Cook’s talk was actually not about purses. It was about living a sanctified, faith-filled life – giving honor to women who by nature are given “the errand of angels” [a reference to the beautiful hymn “As Sisters In Zion“] However, Elder Cook‘s story about the purse sort of stuck in my mind for the rest of the day, and it got me thinking. If I misplaced MY purse today, and someone had to look inside, what would it tell them about me? Well, of course, that led to dumping out the contents and taking a look – here it is:

Inside MoSop's Purse

OK – OK – I admit that I “arranged” everything a little too neatly for the photo. My artsy side got the best of me, plus I had to make sure something really personal [like my credit card number or frightening drivers licence photo] didn’t show. But, other than that – here it all is, for what it’s worth for your voyeuristic pleasure.

What does this purse say about MoSop?

A. She can read

B. She has 63 cents to her name

C. She is only half-prepared for an emergency [oh sure, she’s got an Epi-pen in case a tree nut falls into her mouth – however, if a truecrises happened – like her camera running out of battery power – she’s only got 1 spare and it requires 2! Noooo!!]

Usually my big bag functioning as a purse has my book (absolutely the most important thing in there), phone, wallet, keys, headphones, a just-in-case cloth pad, some sudafed and pain reliever, a pencil, and a rosary.

So: I love to read, I love music, and I have a compulsive need to keep everything that identifies me on my person. I often get monstrous headaches/plugged ears unexpectedly. And the rosary reminds me of my grandma.

I loved that talk! When my kids were young, my husband used to tease me about all the rubber spiders and snakes in my purse, not to mention tissues wrapped around half-eaten slobbered on cookies and candies.